To mark International Women's Day, UNESCO and the UIS have jointly released the World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, which includes over 120 maps, charts and tables featuring a wide range of sex-disaggregated indicators.

The vivid presentation of information and analysis calls attention to persistent gender disparities and the need for greater focus on girls' education as a human right.

The atlas illustrates the educational pathways of girls and boys and the changes in gender disparities over time. It hones in on the gender impact of critical factors such as national wealth, geographic location, investment in education, and fields of study.

The data show that: Although access to education remains a challenge in many countries, girls enrolled in primary school tend to outperform boys. Dropout rates are higher for boys than girls in 63% of countries with data. Countries with high proportions of girls enrolled in secondary education have more women teaching primary education than men. Women are the majority of tertiary students in two-thirds of countries with available data. However, men continue to dominate the highest levels of study, accounting for 56% of PhD graduates and 71% of researchers.

BEIJING, Aug. 8 (Xinhua) -- An official document released on Monday pledged that the government will endeavor to provide compulsory education to 95 percent of Chinese girls over the next ten years.

The Outline for the Development of Chinese Women (2011-2020) issued by the State Council, or China's cabinet, said that the government will continue to promote equal opportunity for nine years of free schooling for all children, but especially for girls, who are more likely to drop out.

First, investing in adolescent girls benefits everyone. When they flourish, their families and communities flourish as well. The benefits will go a long way in a girl’s lifetime, and for generations to come.

As One UN, we will support national development efforts to invest in adolescent girls’ rights, health, education, protection, livelihoods. We can no longer afford to exclude the millions of adolescent girls left behind. They are central to the MDGs and we must make them visible in national action plans and budgets. We must improve our data systems to track the change we aspire to see in their lives.

This is because investing in adolescent girls is both the best and smartest investment a country can make. Educated, healthy and skilled, she will be an active citizen in her community. She will become a mother when she is ready and invest in her future children’s health and education. She will be able to contribute fully to her society and break the cycle of poverty, one girl at a time.

Multiply this by 500 million girls in the developing world and imagine the possibilities. These girls are part of the largest youth population in history, and when they enter the workforce educated, skilled, and healthy, they can help put countries on a path to greater prosperity, peace, and progress, provided the right policies are in place.

We must act now before it is too late. Adolescence is a tumultuous time, especially for the youngest, poorest, most marginalized girls. Without the right opportunities, these girls experience too much too soon. They leave school too early; they are married off and become pregnant before they are ready, and have children while children themselves, often at significant risks to their lives. In shocking numbers, they experience violence and harmful practices, are infected by HIV at alarming rates, and join the labor force often under unsafe conditions.

The UN Adolescent Girls Task Force aims to change this. A year ago during the Commission of the Status of Women, six UN agencies committed to five key actions: (1) educate girls; (2) improve adolescent girls’ health, including their sexual and reproductive health; (3) keep adolescent girls free from violence; (4) promote adolescent girl leaders and (5) count adolescent girls, so they are no longer invisible and we can measurably see the difference to be made in their lives.

Risk of sexual violence, limited access to education, and
health issues such as HIV/AIDS and forced female genital
mutilation/cutting are just a few of the obstacles adolescent
girls face in developing countries, yet these girls are the
key to the future and the eradication of poverty, stress
experts at the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women (CSW).

Children "face grave vulnerabilities and grave challenges as
they make the transition towards adulthood," he added.

The U.N. Adolescent Girls Task Force, which organised a
panel on the issue Friday, is comprised of the U.N.
Population Fund (UNFPA), the children's agency UNICEF, the
newly-launched U.N. Women, and several other U.N. entities.

In countries where the majority of the population is
extremely young, such as Malawi, investing and empowering
adolescents through education is critical to the country's
development. The median age in Malawi 17 years old, and 73.6
percent of the population is below the age of 29, noted
Janet Zeenat Karim, head of the Malawi delegation to the
U.N.

It aims to facilitate the empowerment of adolescent girls by
working with governments and civil society on policies to
that effect. In a joint statement, the UNAGTF organisations
listed educating adolescent girls, improving their health,
protecting them from violence, promoting their leadership,
and collect statistic data on them as five priorities in
their efforts to advance the rights of adolescent girls.

Karim praised the work of U.N. agencies in Malawi, where
adolescent girls face many challenges, including early
marriage and early childbearing, which pose serious health
risks. Additionally, females account for more than half of
all HIV infections in Malawi. The level of sexual and
reproductive health of girls in Malawi is among the worst in
the world.

"The UNFPA has mobilised and worked with the National Youth
Council [of Malawi] to advocate against a bill on child
marriage that was going to go to parliament that would have
made the legal age of a marriage 16," she said.

Wong also stressed the importance of respecting local
culture while introducing new ideas and relevant practices.
In Ethiopia, for example, UNFPA has found that working with
the community is enormously beneficial, particularly in
bringing about long-term change that seriously improves the
lives and futures of adolescent girls.

Though today more than half of the students at the Liberté VI school are girls, Ms. Kidjo said there was more work to be done. Violence in school remains a reality for many Senegalese children, especially for girls.

Student Aida Yacine Sy, 8, said girls must be careful. “My mom told me not to wear short clothing. I should not go into a room alone with a teacher or a group of boys. It is not smart,” she said as her friends nodded in agreement.

Other students at the school said violence could mean anything from bullying to rape. Seated alongside students at a small wooden desk, Ms. Kidjo listened to their stories. Violence, she told them, is never the answer.

“When I was young, kids bullied me because I was small. My dad told me that my brain is my best weapon,” she said. “You must have a strategy. You must speak to your teachers and parents.”

A safe learning environment is essential to keeping girls in school. In Senegal, violence in school, early marriage, sexual abuse, gender discrimination and poverty can impede a girl’s ability to learn.

West Africa has some of the world’s lowest gender parity and girls’ primary-school enrolment rates. In Senegal, fewer than one in five girls are able to go to secondary school – and later in life there are only 6 literate adult women for every 10 literate men.